World AIDS Day service scheduled

The AIDS Interfaith Network will host a World AIDS Day service at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Amarillo Senior Citizens Center, 1217 S. Tyler St.

The 12th annual observance will be commemorated with a Taize service, which includes music, readings and time for silent meditation. A reception will follow.

The observance will continue on Wednesday, when students on the campuses of Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University are scheduled to distribute red ribbons and HIV educational materials.

This year's World AIDS Day theme is "AIDS - End the Silence. Listen, Learn, Live," said Maria DeBrango Stickel, director of community relations for Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle.

"Ending the silence about HIV / AIDS will stimulate the development of new programs for young people to minimize their vulnerability to HIV and reduce the stigma and discrimination surrounding the epidemic," Stickel said.

The AIDS Interfaith Network includes representatives from First Christian Church; Polk Street United Methodist Church; Metropolitan Community Church; St. Mary's Catholic Church; Fellowship of Believers in Hereford; American Red Cross; Friends in Need; Catholic Family Service; Planned Parenthood; Panhandle AIDS Support Organization; the city of Amarillo Health Department; and other HIV and spiritual service organizations.

If current trends continue, nearly 40 million adults worldwide will be infected with HIV by the year 2000.

Last year, nearly 3 million children and young people became infected with HIV.

At the end of last year, 688,200 Americans were infected with HIV / AIDS.

According to the Texas Department of Health, more than 18,000 Texans are infected, and 52 positive tests were recorded in 1997 in Public Health Region I, which includes the Panhandle.

World AIDS Day will link communities throughout the United States in a unified observance on Wednesday, when the White House dims its lights to signify the commitment to fight the AIDS epidemic and give tribute to people living with the infection and those who have died, Stickel said.